New Delhi, Dec 19: Thousands of ineligible beneficiaries were given assistance to construct houses under the Centre's rural housing scheme Indira Awas Yojana, CAG has found and pulled up several states for not assessing actual shortage of shelter.

"It was observed (audited data covering 168 districts from 27 states and four union territories for the period from April 2008 to March 2013) that several ineligible beneficiaries were selected.

"In 12 states, 36,751 non-BPL families were given assistance of Rs 89.15 crore. In 11 states, 10,184 ineligible beneficiaries were selected and Rs 31.73 crore was paid to them," the Comptroller and Auditor General's performance audit of IAY states. The report tabled in Parliament today said in seven states, 33,536 beneficiaries were selected from outside the permanent IAY wait-lists and paid assistance of Rs 138.02 crore.

"In eight states, 1,654 beneficiaries who received assistance of Rs 5.37 crore, already had pucca houses. In eight states, 5,824 beneficiaries were selected more than once and payment of Rs 14.67 crore was made to them.

"In six states, allotment of dwelling units in the name of female members of the household was not preferred," the CAG said.

The government auditor noted that the assessment of housing shortage was mainly based on the estimation of Working Group under the Planning Commission on Rural Housing.

It, however, noted that the actual housing shortage (essential for identification of beneficiaries) was not assessed in 14 states viz Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and three districts of Punjab.